


The Christmas Kiss

by Annie_Is_A_Contranym



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-31
Updated: 2014-12-31
Packaged: 2018-03-04 13:54:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3070607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annie_Is_A_Contranym/pseuds/Annie_Is_A_Contranym
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles waits for a Christmas miracle in the middle of nowhere ( actually, it's the middle of the USA - like literally).</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Christmas Kiss

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this last year as a Secret Santa thing for Rynne. It was posted on Tumblr but never here but someone reminded me of it so I thought 'why not?. Hope you can still enjoy it. I apologize for the cheesy ending. :)

Stiles glanced around the empty diner and startled just a little when he realized the waitress was side eying him hard from her station behind the counter. Her nametag said “Rynne” and he really couldn’t blame her for being ticked off with him. She’d been the poster girl for excellent customer service when he’d first come in flashing that great smile as she’d invited him to pick where he wanted to sit. He’d picked a booth facing the door so he could easily see anyone who walked in the door. That number had been exactly zero. There were three patrons when he came in but they’d all left, like hours ago, because yeah, the fact that Stiles had been sitting in that booth for almost 5 hours drinking only decaf coffee when the owner probably wanted to close up and go home because it was frickin Christmas Eve….well that may account for the evil eye that he was currently on the receiving end of.

His phone rang, loud and brash in the quiet of the diner and Stiles flailed wildly, knocking the phone off the table in his scramble to get it. It was his dad.

“Heeeeey padre. This is like the fourth call from you tonight.” There was an undertone of annoyance in his voice. “You know that even if I leave right now, I still won’t make it back in to Beacon Hills in time to open presents with you, right? I’m literally in the middle of nowhere.”

“I know son.” The Sheriff sounded tired. “But I was just wondering how you were doing.”

There was a hesitation in the Sheriff’s voice before he continued.

“I just…I don’t understand why you’re doing this, Stiles. It’s been ten years. Whatever you meant to each other back then is simply history.”

A familiar pain gripped his throat tight. His dad was right. Stiles had gone on to college, graduating with honours, and currently working for a leading software design corporation. He loved his job and his small circle of friends. He’d heard that Derek had mated with a female Alpha about two years after he’d left without a single word of explanation or goodbye, and had fathered a son. That piece of news had gutted Stiles. His dad was right; life had gone on for both of them. But none of that explained the watch.

“Dad,” Stiles pleaded for understanding, “There is nothing you can say now that you haven’t already. I know how you feel. And you know how I feel. I need to do this; even if it’s to simply lock this box up tight so I can push it aside and not ever wonder about it again.”

His dad sighed loudly.

“You do still wonder ‘what if’, don’t you? All that talk about True Mates, is that why you never settled down? Have you been waiting for him?”

He wasn’t going to cry. The slight burn to his eyes was simply due to irritation caused by the harsh diner lighting. He was so going to have a chat with Rynne about that.

“I have to go Dad. I’ll call you in the morning. Happy Christmas.” He swallowed the lump in his throat. “I love you Dad.”

He clicked off before his dad could respond. Blinking back the wetness in his eyes, he turned his head a little and looked at his reflection in the glass storefront. There were Christmas lights strung around the window frame which made his reflection blink from red to green to yellow. He knew he looked older now but not by much. His hair was different; his cheekbones more prominent and he’d gotten more muscular. He’d taken up Muay Thai as a sport and a method of defence and was damn good at it, entering and winning a few competitions. The boy was gone and now a man looked back at him from the glass. A man who still carried around the insecurity of the boy Derek had abandoned.

He knew the arguments for why Derek did what he did; it was to protect the pack, to give Scott the room to be the Alpha he was meant to be, to give Stiles the chance to live the ‘normal’ life he was entitled to. He’d believed what his dad, Scott, Allison, Lydia and Deaton had told him. He’d heard it all and from everyone. Except Derek. He’d never heard it from Derek and really, why didn’t anybody understand that Derek was the one person, the only person, he should have heard it from.

The sound of his coffee mug being refilled drew his attention to Rynne who was wearing a Santa hat that lit up on the end and a necklace fashioned out of tinsel. She sighed the way dramatic heroines in movies did and sat down in the booth across from him.

“Who ya waiting for honey?” she asked. That was all she said. Five words and the flood gates broke open; Stiles telling her all about the man with the surly face and eyebrows of doom who tricked Stiles into loving him by refusing to let Stiles love him.

He told her about the nights they stayed up doing research for … uh…Derek’s job and how it was so gradual that he didn’t think either of them saw it coming; how their first kiss wasn’t rushed, or stolen but was slow and sweet and an exploration and a revelation all at the same time because they’d woken up next to each other after passing out after a late night session and leaning into each other had been the most natural thing in the world.

The problems the age difference caused, his Dad repeatedly threatening to arrest Derek the tension over the choice of colleges all spilled out. His voice broke as he recounted what it felt like to hear that Derek had left from his best friend Scott; how he refused to believe it for weeks. He’d left his window open all summer waiting for Derek to crawl through it.

He spoke about his love, pain and anger and really Rynne should have been charging him by the hour because as the words left his mouth, it was as if all the pent up hurt, frustration and confusion just seeped right out of him.

“So why are you here, Stiles?” she asked. “Why are you in this diner on Christmas Eve,” she glanced at the clock, “No, Christmas morning, waiting for him when you should be with loved ones?

Stiles spun his watch around his wrist before unbuckling the clasp.

“It’s his birthday today. Most people forget because they’re caught up in Christmas but I remember.”

He placed the watch face down on the table top.

“Our first kiss was on Christmas morning. I remember he looked at me like I was the best Christmas and Birthday present rolled into one.”

He slid the watch very carefully across the table to her, his fingertips lingering as if he were loath to lose the contact even for a moment.

“This was delivered to me on my last birthday with no card, no return address; no message apart from the watch itself. I’ve worn it every day since.”

Rynne looked carefully at it. There were numbers engraved on the back that she didn’t understand but the last bit was definitely a date – yesterday’s date, Christmas Eve. She looked up at Stiles in confusion, evident on her face.

Stiles retrieved the watch and holding it lovingly, he caressed the engravings on the back with his thumb before re-strapping it onto his wrist.

“The first set of numbers are actually coordinates….for this place. The second is the date. Derek sent me the watch telling me where and when to meet him”

“How do you know it’s him?” Rynne asked. “You said there was no note or sender listed.”

Her eyes darted to the watch, once again secure on Stiles wrist.

“What makes you so sure that after all this time, he’s the one who sent it and that you were meant to be here in the middle of nowhere as you called it?”

Stiles grinned. Like excited grinned and he sat up straighter.

“That’s just it! It’s not the middle of nowhere exactly. It’s the middle of here!”

Rynne was beginning to think the young man had been awake too long. Her face must have shown it because Stiles continued animatedly.

“We’re in Lebanon, Kansas. About three quarters of a mile away from here is a marker put up by the government that is supposedly dab smack in the center of our great country. Only it isn’t. When the marker went up, the true center was on privately owned farmland so the government placed the marker as close to the center as possible. This diner was built by the farmers family when the economy took a nosedive in the early 2000’s to capitalize on the tourist factor.”

“Wait a second,” Rynne interrupted. “How do you know all this?”

“Killer research skills,” he grinned.

“Okay,” she replied, still sounding puzzled, “but how did you connect this to Derek?”

Stiles got quiet. She could see the memories flit across his expressive face.

“Derek doesn’t really do words, ya know?” replied Stiles. “He prefers grunts, growls and expressions that are very physical in nature. But there was this one time… we were fighting, because he’d been worried about me, he let it slip that I was his center and his anchor because I kept him balanced and grounded. He told me I kept him together. I was his center and he was mine.”

Stiles stopped talking and they sat in silence for a while not looking at each other, emotion thick in the air.

Eventually Rynne looked at the clock and then look through the store front to the darkness outside.

“I need to close up Stiles. We’re not open on Christmas Day.”

She glanced outside once more before adding softly, “I don’t think he’s coming.”

Her heart broke a little at the look on Stiles’s face as he too glanced at the darkness, blinking furiously trying to stem the wetness in his eyes.

“Stiles,” she said, taking pity on the young man, “It’s three in the morning; the nearest motel is 30 minutes away. How about you crash in my guest room tonight? After breakfast then you can go find your family… Or him. You can go find him.”

Stiles nodded his acceptance of her offer before thanking her. He offered to help her clean and close up but getting up she waved him away.

“Why don’t you take your rental and park it in the back. The kitchen door is open. I should only be about five minutes. There’s not much cleaning.”

Stiles got up and took his coffee cup to the counter.

“Thanks Rynne,” he said, hugging her spontaneously. “I appreciate this. You've been an angel tonight. You’re my Christmas angel.”

She laughed and watched him head out. She stood there and watched the beams from the headlight move around the building before collecting the dirty dishes and cutlery and taking them into the back. After a quick rinse, she loaded them into the already filled dishwasher and turned it on. She did a last check and was about to switch off the lights when she heard the front door open. Calling herself an idiot for forgetting to lock it after Stiles, she made her way to the front, only it wasn't Stiles.

Standing just inside the doorway was a stunningly handsome man in his early thirties. It was odd but he seemed to be sniffing the air. Whatever he caught scent of seemed almost painful to him as he grimaced and looked around the empty diner. She couldn’t smell anything however.

“Is he gone?” the man asked.

 _Derek,_ she thought.

“Did he leave? How long ago?” Derek sounded desperate. “I didn't pass any cars. Please. I have to find him.”

Rynne didn't feel sorry for him however.

“He thought you weren't coming. He waited for over eight hours. What is wrong with you?”

Derek wasn't surprised at Rynne’s outburst. He was knew how easily Stiles could endear himself to strangers but Derek wasn't about to explain himself to anyone. Stiles was the person who needed to hear his words.

“Please, I just need to find him. I just need…him.

Derek sagged back against the door, scrubbing a hand over his face. He was bone tired. He’d moved heaven and earth to get here. His son’s pack was very protective and did not take easily to Derek leaving the community with the last natural born cub to the Alpha bloodline. Even though his ex’s brother took over as Alpha after she was killed by Druids a year ago, the custody negotiations took much longer than it should have. Thank goodness for Cora who agreed to be a maternal influence known and trusted by the pack. Even now, she was sitting in the car looking after the sleeping child.

But he was too late. Well it didn’t matter. Stiles had actually come. After all this time, Derek wasn’t sure he would have but he did. So now Derek was going to drive to Beacon Hills.

He refused to spend another day without Stiles. He’d tried nobility, staying away for Stiles’s own good but they were both still unhappy. So enough! It was time to claim his true mate;d the rest of the world would just have to deal with it.

He swung around, to push open the door and then heard the heartbeat that stopped him in his tracks. He had a second of doubt but the scent was stronger too. Then he heard it; a small sound, hesitant and uncertain.

“Derek?”

He spun around to find Stiles pushing past Rynne to come flying (stumbling really) over the counter to get to him.

“Derek!” Stiles voice was stronger now.

Derek opened his arms and Stiles totally forgot that he was a functioning adult with bills and responsibilities, jumping into Derek’s arms, legs wrapped around Derek’s waist and his face burrowing into Derek’s neck. Derek wrapped one arm around Stiles’s back and the other under his thighs to support him and buried his nose in Stiles’s hair, inhaling the scent of him as if it were the air he needed to live.

“I’m so sorry Stiles.” He whispered. “I should never have left. I’m so sorry”

Rynne could see Stiles’s shoulders tremble as they held each other. Derek’s mouth found Stiles and they gripped each other even tighter. They stood there, lost in each other and the moment. It was intense and moving and private, so with a little smile, she turned around and headed out back. It occurred to her that Stiles and Derek were right under the mistletoe and wasn’t that just the perfect place to begin anew with another Christmas first kiss?

 

Bonus (because it’s Christmas):

Derek watched Stiles gently lift Dylan out of the car in the driveway of the Sheriff’s house. It still shocked him how Stiles and Dylan just took to each other. The waitress had let them all spend the night with her. Cora and Dylan had taken the guest bedroom while Derek and Stiles spent the night on the couch in each other’s arms. They talked a lot about the past and there was still more to resolve but they both acknowledged how right it felt to be together.

Watching his son wrap his arms around Stile’s neck and nuzzle Stiles, scenting him, triggered a warmth deep in his gut. It had been like that on Christmas morning. Dylan had woken up, found his way to the living room and climbed in between them. The little boy could smell his Dad’s scent all over Stiles and so decided to add his own. He’d stuck to Stiles all morning prompting Cora to whisper

“Is this attachment to Stiles hereditary? Did you pass on your inability to be next to Stiles without touching him to Dyl?”

Derek had just smiled in response but he was happy to see the bond already forming between those two.

Stiles was on the porch introducing the little boy to his Dad and the picture it made did strange things to Derek’s heart. He couldn't believe that this was actually his life. Then Stiles looked back at him standing in the driveway and smiled… no grinned!

“You coming Sourwolf? Cuz it’s family happy time inside here.”

In the blink of an eye, Derek was on the porch next to Stiles, pouring out everything he felt into the kiss he was planting on his True Mate. A discreet cough to the side of him pulled him out of it. As he gazed down into the sparkling laughing eyes of the man he loved, he said, “Yes, family happy time sounds good”.

 


End file.
